Romney's Connecticut Money Funding Battleground States

Tiny Connecticut is not a big factor in the Electoral College, but the state has become a national player for Republican Mitt Romney as he collects money to fuel his campaign in the battleground states.

While Romney is fighting fiercely for the presidency in Ohio, some of the money to pay for those TV commercials is coming from Connecticut.

Well-heeled Republican donors from Greenwich and New Canaan have been writing checks at a steady pace — to the Romney campaign, to the Republican National Committee, and to a pro-Romney Super PAC — even though the state itself has been written off politically as comfortably in President Barack Obama's corner. Nationally, Romney and committees working on his behalf had $45 million more on hand than Obama, based on the latest statistics that included the first 17 days in October.

Some of the largest single contributions from Connecticut have gone to Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney Super PAC that collects unlimited contributions from some of the wealthiest voters in the nation. Because of a controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Super PACs can collect unlimited funds — allowing millionaires and billionaires in Greenwich to break free from campaign restrictions and contribute far more than ever.

In lower Fairfield County alone, four individuals have combined to contribute more than $2.5 million to the Super PAC, which pays largely for commercials. Nationally, the Super PAC had raised $111 million as of Sept. 30, while the Romney campaign has directly raised more than $450 million nationwide. With more than 300 Super PACs nationally, overall spending on this year's federal elections in all categories could total a record-breaking $6 billion, according to the Center For Responsive Politics.

Among more than 40,000 ZIP codes throughout the country, Greenwich ranks second — after Manhattan's Upper East Side — for the most money raised directly for Romney's campaign. New Canaan ranks fourth, while a second Greenwich ZIP code — where the median home sells for $2 million in a weak market — ranks ninth.

Many of the contributors to the Super PACare hedge-fund kingpins and financial executives who are not widely known to the general public, but others are more prominent. The best-known in Connecticut are Linda and Vince McMahon, the Greenwich professional wrestling entrepreneurs who contributed a combined $150,000 to the Super PAC, according to public records. McMahon, who is running for the U.S. Senate, has been criticized lately for a campaign commercial touting independent voters who will support her and Obama. But she is placing her money on Romney.

The Romney campaign readily acknowledgesthat the Connecticut donors are funding a chunk of their operations throughout the country. During a recent fundraiser at a country club in Darien, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told the donors that their money was being used far beyond Connecticut's borders.

"Thank you so much for all you have done,'' Ryan said at the Woodway Country Club near the Merritt Parkway. "You don't see what's going on [in the battleground states] on TV, living here in Darien. But please know that the resources you're providing us gives us the ability'' to broadcast the commercials.

Although the McMahons are the most prominent Connecticut contributors on the Super PAC list, they are not the highest donors. Two wealthy financial investors — Chris Shumway of Greenwich and William Laverack Jr. of New Canaan — both contributed $750,000 each to the Super PAC.

Shumway, 46, is a veteran hedge fund manager who runs an investment firm that bears his name. He was listed by Fortune magazine as a member of Romney's 19-member economic advisory panel, which includes five former chairmen of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. He lives in the same neighborhood that had served as the longtime home for the late creator of the Muppets, Jim Henson.

Laverack, 55, now operates his own investment firm after working previously for Morgan Stanley and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. He holds a bachelor's degree and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. Besides contributing $750,000 in his own name, Laverack is connected to Paumanok Partners LLC, a New Canaan company that contributed an additional $250,000 to the Romney Super PAC.

In a recent development outside the Romney campaign, Greenwich billionaire Thomas Peterffy is pouring as much as $10 million into commercials nationwide to tell how he escaped communist Hungary and wants to avoid the economic damages of socialism. He is also spending more than $38,000 in an attempt to defeat Democratic state Sen. Steve Cassano, who won by only 66 votes in 2010 in a swing district. Peterffy is trying to shift control to the Republicans in the state Senate and has contributed more than $25,000 to defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Andrew Maynard of Stonington.